Net surrogate mum jailed for two years

The British woman who fleeced two childless couples of more than £2,500 after offering her unborn baby for sale on the Net has been jailed for two years.

Moira Greenslade, 33, from Keighley, West Yorkshire, received £1,000 from Welsh couple Peter and Sharon Robinson-Hudson. Mr Robinson-Hudson was to declare himself the baby's natural father; his wife could then apply to adopt after the birth. She then did a £9,000 surrogacy deal with GP Dr Mark Johnson and his wife Michelle from the Scottish Hebridean island of Benbecula, taking a £1,500 downpayment.

However, a week before the baby was due, Greenslade cancelled both agreements and offered the infant to Andrew and Janet Rashley, from Southampton, for £8,000. Police slapped the cuffs on Greenslade shortly after the baby's birth at Keighley's Princess Anne Hospital on 11 December last year.

Sentencing Greenslade at Leeds' Crown Court, Mr Justice Henriques said: "Right-thinking members of the public will feel outrage at your cynical and callous fraud. It is the duty of the court to protect vulnerable sectors of the community from dishonest predators.

"Those couples who desperately seek a child are frequently prepared to go to extraordinary ends to meet their ambitions. Their hopes and prayers render them vulnerable to opportunists and fraudsters such as yourself."

He added that Greenslade was a "striking example of a confidence trickster and needed punishment to deter others from behaving in a similar manner".

Greenslade's five-month-old baby girl is now in the care of social services. ®